Sea Ice Community Challenge

[DeathWeasel]

What are people using for their starting room? I tried making a 4x4 without using my exploit-y unbuilt NPD double wall, and it couldn't stay warm enough so Engie got a lot of frostbite overnight.

My starting room was 4x3. You only need it big enough for a bed, a heater, and a research bench. Any bigger and you're just wasting materials and your heater wont be able to keep up. I think a lot of people mistakenly believe they will be able to fit their hydroponics basins in their starting room and try to build it big enough to accommodate them, but doing so is a death sentence.

[Seeker89]

I decided to try my hand at this. Though I decided to play with "some" mods, as I'm not a really good player... and I like mods...

My first 4 runs didn't go so well. Either too big of a room, or trying to build everything at once.... she died pretty quickly...

On my 5th, I lasted 20 days. The first person to join gave me a nice coat, -60c that was nice. shortly after that I got 2 raids that end well for me, and another person that donated her body. In the end  she went into a daze and died in the snow...

My question is how much the heater heats. My first area was 3x2, with my first heater. I added a second part making the area 4x6 and made a second heater, I noticed that I had almost no steel. any tips for the heater?

[Zhentar]

3x4 is basically the smallest you can go for your starting room, and a single heater should be able to keep it above -14C (the comfy temperature with your starting gear) through all of summer. Adding another 12-15 tiles onto that (enough space for 2 hydroponics bays while still using the room as a bedroom) takes 3 heaters + double door airlock to keep it warm enough to grow plants in the winter.

Power + battery + 2 heaters + research table doesn't leave you with enough to make a source for more steel. You can skip the battery if you make a solar panel, which can run two heaters 24/7 for most of the summer, but it won't run shit in winter so it probably hurts you in the long run.

[Seeker89]

For the air lock. are you using a door, space, door?
WDW
WSW
WDW

W as wall, D as for door, S for space... like empty area...

Run 6... death by infection... day 3 or 4

[Zhentar]

http://imgur.com/uiqKgLe.png

WDW
SDS
SSS

No way I'm blowing 20 resources on some walls for a fancy airlock.

[Mkok]

Decided to give it a try as well.


day 3: Vladimir joins in, forcing Engie to quickly come up with a name for her little shackle. This half of the planet shall hereby be known as the "Engie's sea". Vladimir offers to take all the medicine and most of the food, and try to make a run to nearby town for some supplies. He has just enough food to make it to the town.

day 6/ 5:00 O'clock: Another visit. This time by a guy who ran towards engie shouting "Death to Engie!" with a club in hand. Engie shot him dead, and then emptied the whole magazine into his corpse just to be sure.
day 6/ 7:00 o'clock: Valentina followed by 2 hostile tribesman appears. Poor Valentina, she never stood a chance without any clothes. Engie decided to kill her pursuers so she can rest at peace (and also cause Engie wants a human leather armchair  )
day 6/ 8:00 o'clock: Vladimir gets ambushed, luckily only by 1 other pirate who is armed only with club. A fierce battle begins. Club vs club. Vladimir emerges victorious with only some minor bruises.

day 9: Solar flare, nothing for Engie to be concerned about. Time to do even more researching, like every day.

day 10: Vladimir has made it to the land! Also he has fully recovered from his skirmish. Only 5 more days, and he will reach his destination. Lets just hope that the cost of food to get him back wont be more than all that glitterworld medicine hes carrying. Engie is starting to question why Vladimir left without taking any of that substantial amount of silver lying on her veranda.

day 11: Another raid, another raider with a club. It would seem that clubs are the weapon of choice for local pirates. This suits Engie just fine. This one was poorly dressed, and didnt even make it to the shack. Poor Engie, will have to walk all the way over there for that fresh leather if she wants to have a human leather armchair anytime soon.

day 12-13: It would seem a ship blew up in orbit, as its raining ship chunks, escape pods and drop pods. Finally Engie has something to build more walls with (sandstone) some steel for some heavy machinery and fox leather for armchairs! But she wanted that human leather armchair so bad  The escape pod survivor turns out to be a pyromaniac. Pyromaniacs ought not walk this world and so Engie decides this one shall not walk ever again.


Got bored wathing engie research stuff, more to follow sometime later.

[Sp0nge]

Here is my "goto-steps" when starting on this map:

First off, pre your Engie landing, I do the following steps:

a) Allow all the wood to the north (plans are just added to make it easier to understand)
b) Presetup construction of walls and a door

Now ... that Engie has landed speed never goes past the slowest speed (well, those that knows what to do can ofc make it faster). The important part here is to never let Engie do anything she dont need to do. I havent unforbidden the food or picked up the weapon, as its not needed for the task at hand.

So the next step is to lay materials to the walls and door, I dont let Engie construct anything, only placing materials!. Now, as _soon_ as the door has all materials needed (I still dont let Engie construct anything),I set up the campfire. In the screenshots I let Engie construct some on one of the walls, but its really not that dangerouse, just keep it to a minimum!

Ok, so far so good? The next step I take is to, whenever campfire is completed, to force her to make the door. This will result in her making the roof as soon as its complete, then as soon as the last tile indoors has been roofed I force her to finish up the campfire.

Now you should be fully walled in (im totally aware of that the corners of the base is missing, they however dont matter, room is fully sealed), and safe! Now restrict usage of the door so that Engie finish up constructing the walls while she is getting rid of any hypotermia that she`s got. If dont without many "errors" it should reach a max of 31% before dropping. While she is waiting for hypotermia to drop, unselect the 3 patches of steel and the components, you need these to get some proper heating!

The next steps is to set up a storagepile right outside your door, and start to haul those components and steel (there is no need to worry about food yet as long as you havent let Engie do "useless stuff"). I prefer to do 1 hauling at a time and let her rest off her hypotermia inside the shelter, but I guess thats optional. You can do 2 hauls pre warming up again, but I prefer the "safer" route.

As soon as you have hauled those materials (should be 5 trips in total), you are ready to make some proper power and heating. Engie should still be "fine" in regards of eating, as long as you havent had any failed construction or wasting of time otherwise. If you have, now might be the time to unforbid a stack of food and tell her to haul it. Hauling a stack of food (10) is way better than letting it sit out there to rot, afterall, Engie gotta do that one trip regardless?

Now, as Engie is constructing the heater (last thing you force her to do basicly) select the campfire and deconstruct it (make shure the door is forced offlimits). She might want to start sleeping at this point, but as you never run the game at any fast speeds you can quicly force to do whats needed.

Now, you should have a safehouse and Engie without any injuries. If done correctly, new players will understand what micromanagement is involved to also keep Engie feed, warm and rested during the first crucial few minutes on arrival. Personally i make a silver bed (to get rid of the debuff from awefull bedrom) right over the heaterlocation, and the researchbench to the right side of the base (it will just fit).

What people do next, is totally up to them, but I can make a few steps more if people are interested!

I did add some plans for future expansion of the base, its only for outerwalls and an airlock, its nothing thats planned for used earlygame. However, after you research smelting and hydro, the researchbench can be deconstructed and a hydro will fit inside the starting base alongside with a sunlamp. Just keep in mind that power wont be enough with the starting setup (but it will fit when moving the bed horizontally up to the right and heater top left!)

[Beider]

Day 1. My ship crashlanded here in the middle of the ice sheet, after a desperate struggle to get a shelter up in time I barely managed to get a basic shelter up and a campfire before I froze to death. I am settling in for a night of terrible sleep here, hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Day 4. I basic power production, a battery and an electric heater up and running by now. I also managed to get a commos console and an orbital trade beacon up. Nothing so far though, I think I am completely alone here...

Day 8. Today while looking around outside my little hut I found a dead raider, seems he was heading to my hut but froze to death on the way. I didn't burry him, instead I've put him out behind my hut just in case... food supplies have been dwindling fast. Lucklily he had a parka so now I can stay out a little longer without freezing to death.

Day 9. I don't know where all these dead raiders are coming from, by now I got seven of them stacked up behind my hut. I built an extra wall around them so I don't have to look at their corpses every time I walk by. At least one of them had a decent parka so I can stay out as long as I like now, it's a bit sticky with raider goo though...

Day 11. I heard a ship crash this morning and when I arrived at the scene I found berries! Sweet, sweet berries! Seems I don't have to eat... you know what after all.

Day 13. Finally a traide ship passed by, but sadly it was a combat supplier. They bought all the gear I've been looting off the dead raiders I've been finding.

Day 15. Someone called for help today, I told them to come if they wanted even though they were being followed. I tried to rush out to help him but the guy froze to death before I could get him inside. I have no idea how he made it all the way out here with those clothes.

Season 2, Day 1. A bulk trader passed by!! I bought all the steel and wood I could afford, now I am starting construction of hydroponic farms and more heaters!

Season 2, Day 2. A lot of volcanic clouds rolling over today. Looks like we got a volcanic winter coming on. Ah well, how much different can -150C be to -120C.

Season 2, Day 3. Hydroponics are done, I also got two shining new Wind turbines and an extra couple of batteries. I also expaned my hut. However in retrospect I should probably have gotten some food from that bulk trader... my last berries ran out today.

Season 2, Day 5. Been living on raider chow for a few days now and I had a power shortage today which killed off all my potatoes. Will have to be more careful in the future. But on the bright side I found a dead Trumbo on the ice today so that will last me for a while

Season 2, Day 6. I mixed up the trumbo meals with my human meals... Seems I'll be eating surprise meals for a while now.

Season 2, Day 8. I actually got into a fire fight today. Seems one raider actually dressed well enough to make it to my hut. However he was quickly demoralized when he realized all his buddies froze to death on the way here. I shot him in the back as he tried to flee, haha!

Season 2, Day 9. Not much happening today. Mostly lazy day of hauling stuff all over the place. I did have a nice relaxing time watching the sunset from next to Mount Raider (my new name for the pile of raiders behind my house).

Season 2, Day 14. Seems some idiotic raiders have decided to try to siege me. Not a single one of the idiots brought warm clothes, hahaha. They froze to death before they could even construct a single mortar. A few of them tried to flee but not a single one made it out alive. How nice of them to bring me lots of supplies. A bulk goods trader also arrived today, happy day!

Season 2, Day 15. So much to haul... Will be spending a few days hauling now.

Season 3, Day 3. My first potato crop came in today. No time to cook it though, I still got tons of stuff to haul. On the bright side thanks to all the steel I got a few days ago I got enough power production to leave my sun lamp on permanently.

Season 3, Day 5. I was out hauling food today and couldn't stop thinking about how icky this parka full of raider goo is. I've been wearing it for two seasons now, I would have thought I had gotten used to it. Anyway, I blacked out and when I came too I had eaten half my food supply. Luckily my potatoes are growing well so it looks like I won't need to cook up more raider stew.

Season 3, Day 6. A few more cargo pods crashed today. They were full of smokeleaf joints! Woo! I couldn't help myself and smoked one immediately. Right after wards another raid arrived, let's see how far these idiots make... ah never mind already dead.

Season 3, Day 8. MECHANOIDS! Argh, I was not prepared, I am rushing out right now to construct a basic gun turret before they arrive.... I got the turret up *cough* but they blew it up. They got me as well *cough* ... I'm afraid this is the end for me. My only regret is that I couldn't make Mount Raider even bigger.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=835459380

[DeathWeasel]

Here is my "goto-steps" when starting on this map:

There's a few things you can do to improve your setup. First of all, solar panels are terrible this far north because of how little sun you get. Wind turbines produce more energy even in the tropics, and this far north they vastly outproduce solar. Moreover, they still produce energy even when you get eclipses.

Secondly, placing the battery immediately adjacent to the solar panel or wind turbine means that you don't need to use conduits at all, and if you have no conduits you will never get the zzzt event which drains your energy and sets your entire base on fire.

Otherwise, a good guide.

[Zhentar]

All those solar panels and potatoes growing in hydroponics make my minmax heart cry out in pain

And my god, that's over 2000 steel. I curse your good luck.


Sp0nge: that's an excellent intro (other than the solar). There's one more thing you can do to take your start to the next level... while Engie waits to warm up the first time, have her clear all the snow inside the hut. Then have her clear a 1-tile wide path down towards the silver & steel. For industrious Engie, it takes about as long to clear a tile of snow as it does to walk over it six times, so three round trips, saving you a bit of time on your startup, and making it faster to get back in if you accidentally stay out too long. (You don't want to go too crazy with the snow clearing, because then the raiders have an easier time reaching you without freezing)

[DeathWeasel]

Does clearing snow actually have any effect? Even if you clear the snow you're still walking on ice which has a 50% move speed.

[Sp0nge]

Here is my "goto-steps" when starting on this map:

There's a few things you can do to improve your setup. First of all, solar panels are terrible this far north because of how little sun you get. Wind turbines produce more energy even in the tropics, and this far north they vastly outproduce solar. Moreover, they still produce energy even when you get eclipses.

Secondly, placing the battery immediately adjacent to the solar panel or wind turbine means that you don't need to use conduits at all, and if you have no conduits you will never get the zzzt event which drains your energy and sets your entire base on fire.

Otherwise, a good guide.

The reason for not putting the powersource directly onto the battery is for the planning of the second wall, the 1 steel and construction is what i consider to be neglectable in the long run. You cant move batteries without deconstruction and reconstructing right?

As when it goes for solarpanes vs windmills it dont matter as long as its spring/summer. Solar will generate power even during nighttime as when it comes for windturbines they can come to an hault. I went for the more reliable earlygame source, not the high gain, "high" reward route.

After the initial steps researching towards hydro and smelting is a trivial matter, and whatever route you pick after the step i made is kinda merely based on what the storyteller throws at you. I usually never construct anything after the researchbench untill my first "wanderer joins" and first raid. Then i know if im suited to haul slagchunks or not. And i havent looked into materialcosts writing this, merely a response to people dying making theyre first hut

If i am, I go for the smeltery first, then comconsole and tradebeacon, if not the other way around. The only constructionpart that I left out on my post is the single wall and roofing.

Imo a general good idea is to construct one wall out of silver (you really gonna need that wood incase a solarflare, or making a butchertable if all events fails towards winter), where you maximize you roofarea for your stockpile.

You could consider what I wrote as the more safer route, less risk = less reward. But it will give you more time (your first escape-pod might aswell be your mother that dies)

Edit: People understimate the micromanagement earlygame

[DeathWeasel]

You can place the battery adjacent and still leave room for a second wall if you'd like since you can connect your heater or any other thing up to 6 squares away. Even with a wall and a gap for an extra wall, there should be nowhere out of reach of power inside your house. You may think that one steel isn't important, but having your entire wooden hut burn down while a raider prevents your from putting it out when you get that zzt event will make you think otherwise.

Early game, all sources of power are reliable. You will be using so little energy from that one heater that it really doesn't matter what you use. Your battery will be sitting at full power the entire time. When you get your smelter and other things up finally it's going to be heading in to fall or winter, and in winter solar produces such an incredibly tiny trickle of power you wont be able to power any of those fancy new toys you just researched.

It's not that solar is less risk/less reward, it that using solar is needlessly crippling yourself for no gain at all.

[Zhentar]

Does clearing snow actually have any effect? Even if you clear the snow you're still walking on ice which has a 50% move speed.

The move speed percentages are a lie. How it actually works is it adds a certain number of ticks to movement, and the % is calculated based on the base human 13 ticks per tile move speed. Ice adds 12 ticks per tile, and then thick snow adds another 12 ticks on top of that, which means instead of 13 ticks, it takes you 37 ticks to move through that tile; clearing the snow will bring it down to 25.
Incidentally, things that affect move speed (e.g. bionics, injuries, or hypothermia) only affect the base 13 ticks, not the added path costs.

As when it goes for solarpanes vs windmills it dont matter as long as its spring/summer. Solar will generate power even during nighttime as when it comes for windturbines they can come to an hault. I went for the more reliable earlygame source, not the high gain, "high" reward route.

Early game, the power demands are so low that the turbine easily charges the battery to full and the battery can power a single heater for days straight. I've never run out of power before getting hydroponics set up, except occasionally on the first night. And even then, charging the battery at 50 watts is enough that Engie can just sleep through it without getting severe hypothermia before the power picks back up.

And batteries can be uninstalled and reinstalled. The cost of the conduit itself is indeed trivial, but the cost of a zzzzt event is easily game ending, so it is very much worth going out of your way to avoid placing any conduit as long as possible.

[DeathWeasel]

The move speed percentages are a lie. How it actually works is it adds a certain number of ticks to movement, and the % is calculated based on the base human 13 ticks per tile move speed. Ice adds 12 ticks per tile, and then thick snow adds another 12 ticks on top of that, which means instead of 13 ticks, it takes you 37 ticks to move through that tile; clearing the snow will bring it down to 25.
Incidentally, things that affect move speed (e.g. bionics, injuries, or hypothermia) only affect the base 13 ticks, not the added path costs.

Oh man, that's good to know. I wish I had known this in my playthrough, I could have saved myself a lot of travel time.

Don't go crazy clearing too much snow, though. It does snow sometimes. For me it snowed once on year 4 and undid all my snow plowing.